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When I talk about loudness, I don't mean how many decibels a sound has, I mean whether or not we judge a sound as loud.

It is not so much a function of our sense impression, although hearing is a prerequisite, as it is a judgment we make about the sound we hear. We perceive a sound and judge it as loud. Others might disagree with our judgment about the sound, claiming that the sound is not loud. The number of decibels a sound registers on some scale is largely irrelevant to the judgment. If we compared people's judgments of whether or not a particular sound is loud, we might find points of commonality depending upon the kinds of sounds a person has been used to as they grew up.

"That music is loud." We've heard it plenty of times. The loudness is in the music, and a judgment that the music is loud cannot be reduced to how many decibels it registers. People can have a legitimate disagreement about whether the music is loud and, depending upon the physical characteristices of the sound, they may be sounds that almost all of us agree are loud. The judgment, however, is individual. Some people judge the music as loud and some do not. Which judgments are wrong?

Equally, we perceive an action committed by another person, using our senses, and judge it to be good. There may be actions which almost all of us might agree are good, but the judgment is ultimately individual.

There may be actions which almost all of us might agree are good, but the judgment is ultimately individual.

Say, all other conditions were equal, and you had a choice in some particular instance: be cruel or be kind.

Are you saying that if "almost all of us" agreed it was better to be cruel than kind, then your being cruel would be "good"?

In other words, "goodness" is what most say is good. That is what makes it good?

Alternatively, say, someone took pleasure in the suffering of others. And, to them, they would say, "cruelty is 'good.'"

Are you saying that even if "almost all of us" agreed cruelty is not good that, since "the judgment is ultimately individual," cruelty in this case is "good" ?